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Privacy & Security

Researchers are developing platforms to securely and quickly send data to and from smartphones. A new mobile application developed to assist providers in meeting patient privacy regulation allows for the sharing and storing of patient-related photos, videos and audio.

The lack of cybersecurity in mobile applications meant to assist dementia patients and their caregivers could put patients' personal health information at risk, according to researchers at McLean Hospitals in Belmont, Massachusetts, and clinicians at Harvard Medical School. A study in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatryexamined app security policies and provided recommendations.

Cyberattacks occur on many types of devices—including 3D printers. A new study, conducted by researchers at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Georgia Institute of Technology, examines methods in protecting 3D printers for improved cybersecurity.

Facing an increasing amount of cyberattacks, healthcare organizations are building up their cybersecurity programs, according to the 2017 HIMSS Cybersecurity Survey. After speaking with 126 health information technology leaders, researchers outlined current security measures to show points of improvement and explore how the industry can prevent future attacks.

The healthcare industry has fought an uphill battle against hackers in 2017—and it shows in the latest Beazley Breach Insights report. The report, conducted by the cyber and data breach response insurance firm, found the rate of ransomware attacks had increased by 50 percent in the first quarter of 2017, with demands up 133 percent.

MacPractice, a developer of practice management and clinical software, has released a specialized system of encryption for Mac OS X to keep patient data secure. In an exclusive interview with Clinical Innovation & Technology, Mark Hollis, CEO of MacPractice, speaks about MacPractice and the constant hacking threat faced by the healthcare industry.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) has announced the seventh annual Clinical Investigator Training Course, in partnership with the University of Maryland's Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation, will be held Nov. 7-9 for healthcare professionals around the world.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a final rule to make information about clinical trials more available to the public. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has also announced a complementary policy for the registration and submission of results to ClinicalTrials.gov for all NIH-funded trials.

The FBI has released a statement urging companies across all industries, healthcare included, to report ransomware attacks to federal law enforcement, helping them get a step up in evaluating just how dire the situation is.

As cyber attackers increasingly become a threat to healthcare providers' data assets and IT systems, new cybersecurity vendors are entering the market as hospitals and clinics are looking for better ways to protect their patients' information, as well as their own financial and trade secret information.